Plain Salt.

What is art? Most people would answer this question by listing categories such as painting, sculpture, and photography. They might also say that a work of art is a unique object that uses particular materials--such as canvas and paint--and that it illustrates the artist's mastery of technique or ability to capture the seemingly inexpressible. The artist Robert Rauschenberg, however, routinely turns all of these beliefs and others on their heads, and makes us truggle with the very meaning of art itself.

The Object

Plain Salt is one of a series of objects--collectively called Cardboards--that Rauschenberg created in 1971. Made from cardboard boxes that he salvaged in and around his studio, Plain Salt is made up of five boxes in various states of deconstruction--flattened, buckled, and relatively intact. The work is neither a painting nor a sculpture, rather, it is something that falls between the two. It takes up three-dimensional space, yet it hangs on the wall like a painting, with its canvas made out of a large open box that has been laid flat. But unlike a painting, the work has no paint or other marks added by the artist. It is only the boxes themselves, boxes that still have the staples, tears, stickers, stamps, handwriting, tape, and other evidence of their previous real-world uses. Traditionally, corrugated cardboard is not a material used by artists. Similarly, objects taken from the trash would not be considered art. But why does art have to be something beautiful or unique? Why can't it incorporate everyday objects? Is art about shape, color, and materials? Is it about the hand of the artist as revealed through brushstrokes and chisel marks? Or is it about inspiration and creativity? In Plain Salt, Rauschenberg gives us a work that forces us to think about all of these questions.

Meaning

Rauschenberg often operated in what he called the gap between art and life by using found objects as his materials. As art, the once-discarded boxes of Plain Salt asked to be viewed with new eyes that look beyond the utilitarian nature of the objects to consider the visual qualities of their shapes and surfaces. Rauschenberg emphasizes this reading by manipulating the cartons into various configurations that highlight their inherent qualities, simultaneously creating art and confronting us with trash. By choosing boxes as his medium, Rauschenberg invites comparison with art from the early twentieth century--the Cubist collages of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque that were made from cardboard and other cheap materials, as well as Marcel Duchamp's "readymades" of everyday objects which he declared to be sculptures. There are also suggestions of art from the 1960s--the commercial packaging that the boxes represent evokes the icons of mass culture embraced by Pop Art, while the simplicity of materials and shapes hints at the austerity of Minimalist sculpture.

Questions

In Plain Salt, Rauschenberg's role as an artist was to visualize, compose, and construct. What specific choices did he make in creating this work? How did this differ from the traditional role of an artist? How was it the same? How much do you think it cost to create this work and how does that affect your perception of its artistic value? How would the object change if you turned it upside down, turned it on its side, or laid it on the floor? How would it change if it were painted?

The Artist

Robert Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas on October 22, 1925. After attending the University of Texas and serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he decided to study art, attending the Kansas City Art Institute (1947-48) and the Academie Julian in Paris (1947). Later he attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina (1948-49) where he studied with the Bauhaus artist Josef Albers and became friends with the avant-garde composer John Cage. In 1949, he moved to New York to attend the Art Students League (1949-52) and had his first one-man show in 1951. From the beginning, Rauschenberg's style was unconventional and controversial, often using found objects and materials not traditionally associated with art.

Activities

Elementary School 

Explore Rauschenberg's ideas of creating art with found and discarded materials and of incorporating packaging advertising into works of art. Collect an assortment of boxes, both with and without advertisements, that reflect the students' interests. Cereal and other food boxes, shoe and clothing boxes, and toy packaging can all be used to cut and assemble cardboard constructions. Emphasize using the text and images from the boxes as focal points, rather than creating any additional marks.

Middle School

Rauschenberg's contribution to Plain Salt was to visualize, compose, and construct the cardboard. Discuss the role of the artist in creating this piece and how that role defines this piece as art. Compare Rauschenberg's use of cardboard to the early twentieth-century Cubist collages of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Using both cardboard and paper from newspapers, magazines, and product packaging, create collages that utilize a variety of textures and surface dimensions. Encourage building out from the surface of the collages and incorporating negative space into the compositions.

High School

In Plain Salt and in some of his other pieces, Rauschenberg creates large-scale works of art. Investigate other assemblages by Rauschenberg and discuss the impact of the scale on the works and how they might be different in miniature. Using boxes that have been partially and fully cut open, create a room-size installation of cardboard constructions that both stand on the floor and project from the walls. Consider the negative space between constructions as a means to direct the viewer through the work.

April Eisman is an Interpretation Intern in the Department of Education and Public Programs, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Maureen Albano is an Artist and Educator in the Department of Education and Public Programs, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.